Russian gas tanker ship sank near the Libyan shores and Moscow accuses Kyiv

A Russian gas tanker ship sank at sea on Tuesday evening, more than 240 kilometers north of the Libyan city of Sirte, Libya, without specifying the exact cause of the sinking.

The Libyan News Agency on Wednesday quoted the country’s Ports and Maritime Transport Authority as saying that the ship, named “Arctic Metagas”, sank after being subjected to explosions followed by a huge fire.

The Libyan Ports Authority said in a navigational circular that the operations room of the Libyan Search and Rescue Center received a distress call from the tanker yesterday evening as it passed through the Libyan Maltese waters, before it was exposed to sudden explosions on board that caused a large-scale fire and the entire sinking of the ship.

It confirmed that in coordination between the Libyan and Maltese sides, a cargo ship that was closest to the site of the accident was directed to provide assistance, as it was able to rescue all the crew members of the tanker, which numbered 30 people.

The ship was loaded with an estimated cargo of about 62,000 metric tons of liquefied natural gas, and it hasn’t yet been determined whether flammable or contaminated materials leaked from the ship’s tanks.

From its part, Russian Ministry of Transport announced that the ship, which set off from the port of Murmansk in northern Russia, was attacked on the Libyan coast by naval drones of the Ukrainian Navy.

At the end of January, a cargo ship named “Ministar”, which was rising the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis, sank 10 nautical miles northeast of the country.

In mid-2025, the Greek oil tanker Valle Mora suffered an explosion while sailing off the coast of Libya.